NATIONAL BESTSELLER Now with an additional story. Every now and then, right in the middle of an ordinary day, a woman kicks up her heels and commits a small act of liberation. What would you do if you could shed the “shoulds” and do, say—and eat—whatever you really desired? Go AWOL from Weight Watchers and spend an entire day eating every single thing you want? Start a dating service for people over fifty to reclaim the razzle-dazzle in your life—or your marriage? Seek comfort in the face of aging, look for love in the midst of loss, find friendship in the most surprising of places? In these beautiful, funny stories, Elizabeth Berg takes us into the heart of the lives of women who do all these things and more—confronting their true feelings, desires, and joys along the way.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “An extraordinary short story collection that deserves our closest attention.”—Detroit Free Press “Elizabeth Berg’s gift as a storyteller lies most powerfully in her ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, the remarkable in the everyday.”—The Boston Globe In this superb collection of short stories, Elizabeth Berg takes us into pivotal moments in the lives of women, when memories and events come together to create a sense of coherence, understanding, and change. In “Ordinary Life,” Mavis McPherson locks herself in the bathroom for a week, shutting out her husband and the realities of their life together—and no, she isn't contemplating a divorce. She just needs some time to think, take stock of her life, and to arrive, finally, at a surprising conclusion. In “White Dwarf” and “Martin's Letter to Nan,” the secrets of a marriage are revealed with sensitivity and “brilliant insights about the human condition” (Detroit Free Press) that have become trademark of Berg's writing. The Charlotte Observer has said, “Berg captures the way women think as well as any writer.” Those qualities of wisdom and perception are everywhere present in Ordinary Life.

Elizabeth Berg, bestselling author of The Art of Mending and The Year of Pleasures, has a rare talent for revealing her characters’ hearts and minds in a manner that makes us empathize completely. Her new novel, We Are All Welcome Here, features three women, each struggling against overwhelming odds for her own kind of freedom. It is the summer of 1964. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the town of Elvis’s birth, tensions are mounting over civil-rights demonstrations occurring ever more frequently–and violently–across the state. But in Paige Dunn’s small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns. Challenged by the effects of the polio she contracted during her last month of pregnancy, Paige is nonetheless determined to live as normal a life as possible and to raise her daughter, Diana, in the way she sees fit–with the support of her tough-talking black caregiver, Peacie. Diana is trying in her own fashion to live a normal life. As a fourteen-year-old, she wants to make money for clothes and magazines, to slough off the authority of her mother and Peacie, to figure out the puzzle that is boys, and to escape the oppressiveness she sees everywhere in her small town. What she can never escape, however, is the way her life is markedly different from others’. Nor can she escape her ongoing responsibility to assist in caring for her mother. Paige Dunn is attractive, charming, intelligent, and lively, but her needs are great–and relentless. As the summer unfolds, hate and adversity will visit this modest home. Despite the difficulties thrust upon them, each of the women will find her own path to independence, understanding, and peace. And Diana’s mother, so mightily compromised, will end up giving her daughter an extraordinary gift few parents could match.

What if you could lose weight without cutting out foods that you love? That was the dream of Kayla Cox, who had struggled with her weight throughout her life. At age 30, she weighed 222 pounds and had tried every diet, sometimes with initial success, but she could never keep it off. Frustrated and feeling hopeless, she discovered intermittent fasting. In the process of losing 80 pounds, she learned she had been making weight loss too complicated. With intermittent fasting, there was no need to count calories, cut carbs, or do high-intensity workouts.Through the process of learning how to practice intermittent fasting in this laid-back and sustainable way, she was able to get to her goal weight and keep it off for 5 years and counting. In this book, she shares her method, with tips and tricks that worked for her.Kayla also shares her weight loss journey on her YouTube channel, Six Miles to Supper which to date, has over 59,000 subscribers.

"The Every-Other-Day Diet is the perfect diet for me." That's the satisfied declaration of a dieter who lost 41 pounds on the Every-Other-Day Diet. (And kept it off!) You too can expect dramatic results with this revolutionary approach to weight loss that is incredibly simple, easy, and effective. Created by Dr. Krista Varady, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois, the Every-Other-Day Diet will change the way you think of dieting forever. Among its many benefits: It's science-tested, science-proven. Dr. Varady has conducted many scientific studies on the Every-Other-Day Diet, involving hundreds of people, with consistently positive results published in top medical journals such as the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Obesity. Unlike most other diets, the Every-Other-Day Diet is proven to work. It's remarkably simple-and effective. On Diet Day, you limit calories. On Feast Day, you eat anything you want and as much as you want. You alternate Diet Day and Feast Day. And you lose weight, steadily and reliably. There's no constant deprivation. The Every-Other-Day Diet doesn't involve day after day of dietary deprivation--because you can still indulge every-other day. It's easy to keep the weight off. With other diets, you lose weight only to regain it, the frustrating fate of most dieters. But The Every-Other-Day Diet includes the Every-Other-Day Success Plan--an approach to weight maintenance proven to work in a study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. This book offers all of the research, strategies, tips, and tools you need to believe in the Every-Other-Day Diet and easily implement it in your life. It also includes more than 80 quick and delicious recipes for Diet Day, as well as a list of tasty prepared foods that make meals as easy as 1-2-3. The Every-Other-Day Diet is perfect for anyone who wants to shed pounds and feel great, without hunger and defeat.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Elizabeth Berg's Once Upon a Time, There Was You. In this superb novel by the beloved author of Talk Before Sleep, The Pull of the Moon, and Until the Real Thing Comes Along, a woman re-creates her life after divorce by opening up her house and her heart. Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money. To meet her mortgage payments, Sam decides to take in boarders. The first is an older woman who offers sage advice and sorely needed comfort; the second, a maladjusted student, is not quite so helpful. A new friend, King, an untraditional man, suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work. But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness. In order to really see people, she has to look within her heart. And in order to know who she is, she has to remember—and reclaim—the person she used to be, long before she became someone else in an effort to save her marriage. Open House is a love story about what can blossom between a man and a woman, and within a woman herself.